Sure, it's been a record-breaking year on Wall Street. The blue-chip Dow has posted 28 record closing highs this year. And the benchmark S&P 500 index has notched 23 new records,

But the go-go stock market of 2013, which suffered losses of 0.4% Wednesday still has a long way to go to break the all-time record for the most record closing highs in a year.

How long? For the Dow Jones industrial average, it would take 42 more record closes to eclipse the record 69 record highs it notched back in 1995, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Similarly, the Standard & Poor's 500 index is not even in shooting distance of its 77 record closes it put up in 1995, data from Birinyi Associates show.

He notes that the new highs tend to come in bursts in a short period of time. The real "test" as to whether the run of record highs is bullish for the future occurs "when the market takes a breather," Kinahan says.

If the market pauses briefly and then starts up again, that is a good sign. But if the weakness persists, and stocks keep falling, and suffer a drop of 5%-plus, it could be signalling a more serious downward move."

There have been a few periods in which new highs beget new highs. For instance, both the Dow and S&P 500 posted daily record highs greater than the current count this year every year from 1995 through 1999.

But Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, says that if the Dow keeps up its current pace, it could finish the year with a total of 50 record closes, which would tie for sixth place all-time.

In contrast, the S&P 500 has also gone long periods in which it hasn't had any new highs. For example, the big-cap index had zero new highs from 1930 to 1953, 1974 to 1979, 2000 to 2006, and from 2008 to 2012, the Birinyi data show.

From a historical perspective, the total number of all-time closing highs for the Dow is nothing out of the ordinary so far, says Hickey.

"But if the current pace continues," he adds, "2013 could end up as one of those years for the ages."